Sands Point, which is home to some of the most exclusive and expensive houses in the US, has been home to members of the Vanderbilt, Guggenheim and Hearst dynasties over the years. Fitzgerald used the area as an inspiration for the fictional home of The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan.

Parisi's roots in the working class Long Island town of South Shore 50 miles away could not have been further from the exclusive enclave otherwise known as the Gold Coast.

Even as her body was identified through fingerprints family members contacted police after they recognised the tattoo of a smiling flower that she shares with her three elder siblings.

Police say Parisi had been beaten over the head with a blunt instrument. She was arrested in July for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend Edgar Sanchez several times. Mr Sanchez's whereabouts have yet to be established.